TURNOUT UP FROM 2012

80,000 cast ballots but long lines at polling stations drove some away

Voter turnout for this year’s municipal election was 40 per cent, up slightly from 37 per cent in 2012.

According to unofficial numbers, 80,012 of Saskatoon’s 200,228 eligible voters cast ballots last week or on Wednesday.

So many people showed up to vote near the end of the voting period on Wednesday that some voters waited up to an hour and some left polling stations without casting a ballot.

Long lines led to a delay in the release of voting results; the count from advance polls was expected to be made public shortly after 8 p.m., but wasn’t released until closer to 9 p.m.

There were early indications that turnout would surpass that of the 2012 election.

Nearly 15,000 people used advance polls — an increase of about 50 per cent compared to 2012.

Catherine Folkersen, the City of Saskatoon’s first independent returning officer, said 14,772 Saskatoon residents used advance polls this year.

The higher-than-normal numbers may be because the municipal election was the third election in a year — after the federal election last fall and the provincial election this spring — allowing people to become comfortable with using advance polls, Folkersen said.

There were only two days of advance polling at the University of Saskatchewan this year, compared to five in 2012, but Folkersen said the same number of people voted in advance on campus this year as did in the last civic election.

That didn’t surprise University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union president Kehan Fu.

He said the municipal election has been a hot topic on campus for weeks and he expected the turnout of young people to reflect that.

Mayoral candidates and candidates running in Ward 6 had spent time on campus talking to students and many felt they knew the candidates and issues, Fu said.

“Just from my time on campus and talking to those who have been on campus for a bit longer — more than four years — it’s definitely, definitely one of the most talked about elections they’ve seen in terms of student engagement in recent memory, if not in history,” said Fu.

U of S political science professor Joe Garcea said federal elections get the highest voter turnout at about 80 per cent, provincial elections see the next highest at about 60 per cent and municipal elections have the lowest turnout at less than 50 per cent.

In general, the trend has been that turnout has been decreasing for all levels of government, but elections tied to referendums and highly competitive contests tend to see higher turnouts.

Last fall’s federal election, which saw Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party overthrow the Stephen Harper Conservatives, had a turnout of

It’s definitely, definitely one of the most talked about elections they’ve seen in terms of student engagement in recent memory.

68 per cent — the highest in more than 20 years — while the spring provincial election, which saw the Saskatchewan Party under Brad Wall resume its hold of the Legislature, had a turnout of 54 per cent.

The 2012 Saskatoon election saw 36.8 per cent of eligible voters came out to vote, despite ballot shortages, three days of snowfall and minor confusion with new ward boundaries.

Three years earlier, in 2009, turnout was 27 per cent.